Other prophets make similar predictions. The Savior said to His disciples that His elect should be gathered together "from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other." St. John says:
"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." (Revelation 18: 4).
The evidence that this revelation Joseph Smith claimed to have received is genuine is in the fact that the elect are being gathered. Ever since the revelation was made known the Latter-day Saints have been gathering to a designated place.
True to the prediction of Jeremiah, those who accept the Gospel and gather to Zion are very frequently "one of a city, and two of a family." The further fulfillment of the same prophecy, they are being fed "with knowledge and understanding." The Latter-day Saints are taught to understand the Gospel for themselves, so that they do not need to depend upon others, and each one is thereby fitted to teach its principles. The way is also pointed out to them whereby they can receive a knowledge from heaven of the truth of the doctrines they are taught, so that they are not deluded nor misled by the teachings of men. The pastors who feed them with this "knowledge and understanding" are according to the Lord's heart, in this much at least: they labor to save mankind through the love they have for them. They do not "teach for hire," nor "divine for money." Their services are given freely, and the Gospel is taught by them without money and without price.
The gathering of the Lord's people "one of a city, and two of a family," brings about many conditions which the Savior said would be the result of the preaching of His gospel; and in numerous cases the Latter-day Saints realize in their own experiences, the fulfillment of such words as the following spoken by the Savior:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." (Matthew 10: 34, 36).
"And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends." (Luke 21: 16).
The Latter-day Saints are not of the world in their ways. They are taught to strictly abstain from the sinful practices in the world, and are therefore looked upon as a peculiar people. As the Savior said would be the case, because they are not of the world, the world hate them, and often persecute them. They rejoice, however, in the promise of Jesus, which they find to be true:
"There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life." (Mark 10: 29, 30).
GATHERING PECULIAR TO LATTER-DAY SAINTS.
It is a significant fact that there are no other people than the Latter-day Saints who make any profession that they have been commanded of the Lord to gather, nor are there any others who are making any efforts with such an object in view.